(A) Field of the Invention
As known, waste, refuse, trash and garbage adds up to one of the most critical problems of our time. No corner of the earth is immune from the huge mass of waste that is polluting the land, air, water, and environment. Waste is piled high in cities, in rural dumps, on beaches, and in harbors. Landfills are overloaded, leaking hazardous chemicals into ground and water.
Updated research data shows that at least 230 million tons of solid waste are generated every year in U.S.A. in our homes and businesses, or more than 5 pounds for each man, woman and child every single day. Each household throws out an average of 13000 pieces of paper, 1800 plastic items, 500 aluminum cans and 500 glass bottles a year. The cost of waste disposal have risen to $50 and more per ton, or $8 billion for household and office garbage alone.
Landfilling is the current way of disposal of 80% of the trash in U.S.A. However, landfilling present serious health and ecological problems.
Trying to reduce the volume of the trash, solutions have been tried such as burning the trash in Incinerators. However, this has caused severe health problems and cost billions of dollars to build, operate and maintain.
Recycling and reusing the waste materials is today the most effective, economical and healthy way of solving the waste disposal problem. Based on recent research data, 42% of the solid waste is paper- corrugated cardboard, newspaper, magazines, books, paper-board and office paper. Glass containers are 9%, aluminum cans 8% and plastic 7%. which means that altogether 66% of the trash can be recycled. Annually this amounts to about 150 million ton in U.S.A.
(B) Description of Prior Art
Prior art includes ways to improve and organize the waste collection and recycling duties and proposes several types of storage containers for helping with the sorting of the household waste materials. Other patents include means to mechanically reduce the volume of some waste containers such as aluminum cans with mechanical means of crushing plastic containers of certain shapes.
Few examples of the patent which are related to this prior art are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,072,833 to D. Hansen and P. F. Mahoney, 5,042,634 to C. Gulmini and 5,048,903 to E. Loblein.
Other prior art patents relate to compacting means for waste material:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,562 by Kurt H Smedlund disclosed means to compact plural refuse receivers on an indexable support, by a power-operated mechanism. However, its mechanism for compacting multiple refuse receivers in controlled manually, with multiple cyclic compacting, which is not suitable for multiple types of waste, where usually only one receiver needs compacting at a time.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,479 by Fredrick L. Diamond provides special collapsible box in which the waste material is compacted by hydraulic ram. However, the control of compacting operation and the removal of the filled bag are done manually.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,730 by Robert W. Bonacorsi disclosed means to remove the filled bag by a wheeled bin which is removed from the compactor housing and moved to the site of waste disposal. However, the control of compacting operation and the removal of the filled bag is done manually.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,651 by Hugh F. Groth and Gullbert M. Hunt disclosed compacting means which include a ram driven by scissor-type actuator. The container is made of rigid plastic which is attached to two wheel cart for moving the container. However, the control of the compacting operations and the removal of the filed bag is done manually.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,975 by James T. Knower disclosed a driven rotor which mesh with static teeth of anvil member which is used to shred waste material and also to compact it into the waste box. However, the shredding operations and the removal of waste box with fork lift-type jack, may not be suitable for household use. In addition, the waste material is not sealed inside a housing and also the control of the shredding operations and the removal of waste is done manually.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,304 by Mark A. Roberts disclosed a Carousel Compactor for Multi Component Refuse. The specific waste containers are being turned to certain angular location for receiving new waste, compacting and removal of the filled bags. However, the control of all operations, including introducing new waste, compacting and removal of filled bag is done manually by means of microprocessor keyboard."
However, the prior art has not provided a extensive solution to the household and commercial waste recycling and collection which could be widely utilized by the public.
According to said prior art, the recycling the waste material handling still requires tedious and mostly manual effort every single day.
Even by utilizing the prior art techniques for recycling and reducing the volume of the waste, there is still no efficient way to help the public in the daily coping with the new recent waste recycling laws which were enforced in many states throughout the country.
Furthermore, the prior art has not solved the waste material recycling and disposal problem, relating to the recent requirements for waste material recycling in every household and business, and for reducing the volume of non-recyclable waste.